Judge: Man's fraud 'chipped away' at public trust

January 29, 2010

A securities salesman accused of bilking a widow, a leukemia sufferer and even his own mother was sentenced to 3 years in prison today by a judge who said that the man's actions had eroded public trust.

Keith A. Wetteland, 48, of Aurora had pleaded guilty last year to forgery and theft charges for diverting money a client had given him to invest.

"There is a certain trust that citizens should be able to rely on," Kane County Judge T. Jordan Gallagher told Wetteland. "You have chipped away at that trust."

One of his victims, a Batavia widow, testified that she had given $100,000 to Wetteland to invest in life insurance policies, but later discovered that he had only invested $50,000.

A Will County woman who had to stop working after she was diagnosed with leukemia testified Wetteland failed to invest the $25,000 she had given him. Charges have not been filed in that case, though the woman said she has been in touch with authorities there.

And an Aurora police officer testified at the hearing that Wetteland's 81-year-old mother filed a report saying she discovered her son had taken out additional mortgages on her home for $250,000. Wetteland, though, has not been charged in that incident.

Prosecutors said they don't know what became of the money. Wetteland told the judge that the situation was of his own making, but also because of promises made to him by other people, though he did not elaborate.

"I'm a good man who made some really bad mistakes," Wetteland said.

Assistant State's Atty. Divya Sarang urged the judge to sentence Wetteland to prison time on behalf of the victims, who suffered mental anguish, if not physical damage.

"They were not stabbed but they might as well have been for the money they lost," she said.

Gallagher also ordered Wetteland to begin making restitution to the Batavia woman after he is released from prison.